Joaquin Farias (born 1973) is a Spanish-born Canadian neuroscientist, researcher, and writer specializing in movement therapy for dystonia.
Farias was born in 1973 in Murcia, Spain. He holds master's degrees in neuropsychological rehabilitation, psychosociology, and ergonomics and a doctorate in biomechanics.
At the age of 21, while training as a professional musician, Farias developed dystonia, which caused involuntary curling of his fingers and affected his ability to play the piano. Following his own experience with dystonia as a young musician, he began his research work on dystonia in 1996, which led him to create his own exercises to manage his condition.
After recovering, Farias created a training program based on princples of neuroplasticity. In 2018, he launched the Dystonia Recovery Online Program, which presents his movement-based exercises and approach for people with dystonia. Farias has worked as a coach for musicians, Olympic and Paralympic athletes, and dancers with focal dystonia and other practice-related movement disorders.
Previously, Farias served as a professor at the Music and Health Research Collaboratory of the University of Toronto and is director of the Neuroplastic Training Institute in Toronto.
Farias's work hypothesizes a link between dystonia and the insular cortex, which plays a role in controlling motion and emotion. Farias theorizes that repetitive activities might reinforce improper neural pathways, thereby exacerbating the condition.
His method, which he calls the Farias Technique, involves using movement-based exercises to help retrain brain functions related to motor and sensory processing. The core of his treatment approach is centered on relearning and normalizing repressed movements, through specific exercises.His approach has been described as using movement-based exercises to help re-balance what he characterises as an overtaxed nervous system in people with task-specific dystonia, and as interpreting their symptoms in terms of autonomic nervous system dysregulation.In a 2023 article in The Guardian, Farias was quoted as saying that dystonia involves non-motor symptoms and dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system, and that more research is needed in this area.